The decision by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday to merge the
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment into another city agency has
raised concern over the future of the city's decade-old experiment
with grass-roots democracy.

To Villaraigosa and many city and neighborhood council leaders, the
proposal - which will eliminate some two dozen positions and save an
estimated $2 million - will help chip away the bureaucracy at City Hall.

"The consolidation effort will not only create cost savings,
but will serve to take the bureaucracy out of community
empowerment," Villaraigosa said in a statement. "This
consolidation is an opportunity to create the volunteer opportunities
that engage communities and foster participation."

But leaders of several neighborhood councils said the mayor's
proposal and funding cutbacks would gut the councils, and expressed fear
that that's the aim of city leaders.

"If this is the beginning of killing neighborhood councils,
it's a terrible loss," said Dennis DeYoung, president of the
Northridge West Neighborhood Council. "The whole idea of
neighborhood councils is a good one, and I think it's been a
success. ... Neighborhood councils represent such a tiny fraction of the
city budget. They're taking their eye off the ball."

'Diluting the department'

Villaraigosa's plan would make DONE part of the Community
Development Department, with its general manager, Richard Benbow, taking
on responsibility for both agencies.

BH Kim, who has been DONE's manager for three years, said he
will resign his post on June 30, when the merger is expected to be
completed.

"I do have concerns that this will give the perception of
diluting the department," Kim said. "Putting DONE in such a
large department will have an impact.

"We are the department that was involved in building
relationships with the neighborhood councils. That's our job, to
work with the neighborhood councils and step in when we have to when
there are disputes."

Al Abrams, vice chairman of the Board of Neighborhood Commissions,
said he is not bothered by merging the department into the Community
Development Department.

"I think most of the neighborhood councils will see this as a
boost and giving them more freedom," Abrams said. "What I am
concerned about is whether we are allowed to go ahead with this
year's elections.

"A lot of them are scheduled for next week, and it's a
big deal to the neighborhood councils and the hundreds of people across
the city who have made the decision to get involved. It is not something
that is easy. They are putting their names out there, making speeches
and campaigning and spending their own money. I just think it would be
unfair to stop that process now."

Councilman Dennis Zine, who was on the Appointed Charter Reform
Commission that created the neighborhood council system in 1999, said he
wants to allow the elections to go ahead.

"Most of the ($1.5 million) budgeted for the elections has
been spent," Zine said. "We made a promise and we should keep
it. And we can look at how we should change the system next year."

The amount the consolidation of the department will save is just a
tiny fraction of the city's $212 million budget shortfall this
year. Next year, the gap will widen to $484 million out of the
city's total budget of $7.01 billion.

"But it's a step in saving money," said Councilman
Bernard Parks, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. "And,
it will be an annual savings."

Skepticism over motives

Mike O'Gara, president of the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council,
said he was "shocked" by the news that came out over the
weekend about Villaraigosa's proposal.

He said he thinks neighborhood councils - established in the new
City Charter approved by voters in 1999 - are less popular with city
leaders "as we mature, and more and more we show up at city council
hearings and say we'd like changes."

Ken Draper, publisher of CityWatch LA, which reports on the
neighborhood council issues, said he is concerned not about the loss of
a separate department but about the message it sends to neighborhood
councils.

"There's a lot of hysteria out there and some
confusion," Draper said. "What people have to remember is that
DONE and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners exist to serve the
neighborhood councils.

"I think once the neighborhood councils see how it's
working, it will give the neighborhood councils more freedom,"
Draper said.

Zine said he believes the city also needed to change the funding
mechanism for neighborhood councils. For several years, each of the
neighborhood councils - the city now has 90 - received $50,000 a year
for programs or services they wanted in their communities. Last year, it
was dropped to $45,000, and it has been proposed that be cut in half, to
$22,500 for this coming year.

Zine said all the money should be put in one account with the
neighborhood councils putting in their funding requests through the
commission for approval.

Garth Carlson, a board member and past chairman of the Reseda
Neighborhood Council, said most councils would be willing to take a
small cut in funding but that the proposal is unreasonable.

Neighborhood council leaders said they'll try to aim public
pressure at City Hall.

Said Carlson: "Whenever the neighborhood councils have reacted
to bad decisions by the city and made a large clamor, the city has
turned around and stopped."

rick.orlov@dailynews.com

213-978-0390

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